William Shakespeare is known widely for his plays that dabble in comedy, tragedy, and most importantly, romance. Many of his plays incorporate more than one of these motifs. Throughout Shakespeare's plays, the characters and their dialogue give way to a cynical perspective on societal standards and views about love. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare derides the societal conceptions of love and chastises the ideals and yearnings of the members of the society. Shakespeare uses irony, metaphors, and plot dynamics to display the immense confusion of mistaken identity which emphasizes the theme love can exist only if society values it.
Throughout different time periods, many civilizations have altered their perception and value of love. Within the past few centuries, societies have shown a trend of decreasing their value of genuine love, and an increase in idealized concept of love, which has resulted in real love almost vanishing, being replaced by lust and infatuation. This brings to light the theme that love can only exist if society values it. This is because if the society craves infatuation, the society can use this feeling as a placeholder for love, without realizing that the feeling they are experiencing is not actually the feeling of love. In Britain, Shakespeare wrote the Twelfth Night; this society is one of the many societies that have fallen victim to their own ignorance and are under the mislead belief that petty infatuation and lust is in fact love.
The Twelfth Night was written to humor the audience with comedic situations, but it's purpose is to simultaneously mock the values of society-the very society laughing at the foolishness of the plot. According to Garner, "The Twelfth Night is a comedy whose background is e...
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...ence that is enjoying the play at laughing at the preposterous and ridiculousness of the plotline by mocking them because they do not value love as a society. Genuine love cannot exist in a society if the society does not truly value this love.
Works Cited
Garner, C. O. "Twelfth Night." Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 21 (1963): 41. JSTOR. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .
McCulloch, Andrew. "Love and Lovers in Twelfth Night." Wellington College Intranet. Wellington College, 2001. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Schalkwyk, David. "Love and Service in 'Twelfth Night' and the Sonnets." Love and Service in "Twelfth Night" and the Sonnets. Vol. 51. N.p.: Folger Shakespeare Library, 2005. 76-100. JSTOR. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .
William, Shakespeare Twelfth Night. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 1079-1139.
The characters in Twelfth Night each play an important and specific role, especially when it comes to interfering or setting fate for romantic interests. Not all characters get a happy ending, and a particular character’s husband turned out to be someone much different than who she believed to be marrying. Through dishonesty, confusion, and chicanery, each character had a helping hand in dishing out each other’s fate, but nonetheless, the relationships that resulted in a law binding marriage beat destiny and overcame every hardship standing in the way of love and happiness.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a comedy that has been interpreted in different ways, enabling one to receive multiple experiences of the same story. Due to the content and themes of the play, it can be creatively challenging to producers and their casting strategies. Instead of being a hindrance, I find the ability for one to experiment exciting as people try to discover strategies that best represent entertainment for the audience, as well as the best ways to interpret Shakespeare’s work.
Dobson, Michael. “Twelfth Night” in The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Wells, Stanley, and Gary Taylor, eds. "Twelfth Night, or What You Will". William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1998.
The overriding theme of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare deals with the nature of love. Though true love seems to be held up as an ideal, false love is mostly what we are shown. Underneath his frantic comedy, Shakespeare seems to be asking the questions all lovers ask in the midst of their confusion: How do we know when love is real? How can we trust ourselves that love is real when we are so easily swayed by passion and romantic conventions? Some readers may sense bitterness behind the comedy, but will probably also recognize the truth behind Shakespeare's satire. Often, love leads us down blind alleys and makes us do things we regret later. The lovers within the scene, especially the men, are made to seem rather shallow. They change the objects of their affections, all the time swearing eternal love to one or the other. In this scene Shakespeare presents the idea that both false love and true love can prevail..
Barton, Anne. Introduction to Twelfth Night. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. 403-407.
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”. The general umbrella of love encompasses various kinds of love such as romantic love, the love of a parent for a child, love of one’s country, and several others. What is common to all love is this: Your own well-being is tied up with that of someone (or something) you love… When love is not present, changes in other people’s well being do not, in general, change your own… Being ‘in love’ infatuation is an intense state that displays similar features: … and finding everyone charming and nice, and thinking they all must sense one’s happiness. At first glance it seems as though Shakespeare advocates the hasty, hormone-driven passion portrayed by the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet; however, when viewed from a more modern, North-American perspective, it seems as though Shakespeare was not in fact endorsing it, but mocking the public’s superficial perception of love. Shakespeare’s criticism of the teens’ young and hasty love is portrayed in various instances of the play, including Romeo’s shallow, flip-flop love for Rosaline then Juliet, and his fights with Juliet’s family. Also, the conseque...
Summers, Joseph H. "The Masks of Twelfth Night." University of Kansas City Review 22 (1955): 86-97.
It is well known that Shakespeare’s comedies contain many marriages, some arranged, some spontaneous. During Queen Elizabeth's time, it was considered foolish to marry for love. However, in Shakespeare’s plays, people often marry for love. With a closer look into two of his most famous plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will, I found that while marriages are defined and approached differently in these two plays, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward love in both plays share similarities. The marriages in As You Like It’s conform to social expectation, while the marriages are more rebellious in Twelfth Night. Love, in both plays, was defined as
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night Or, What You Will. New York, New York: New American Library, 1998. Print.
Henze, Richard. "Twelfth Night: Free Disposition on the Sea of Love." The Sewanee Review 83.2 (1975): 267-283. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 11 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Naturally, one of the most reoccurring themes in Shakespeare is romantic love. It is perhaps not a coincidence that he put so much emphasis on this elusive and enigmatic emotion. In the Elizabethan age when he was writing, the arts were being explored more fervently, and thus raw human emotions began to surface in the mainstream culture. In Twelfth Night, love is a confusing and fickle thing, as demonstrated in the relationships between Duke Orsino and Olivia; Olivia and Viola/Curio; Malvolio and Olivia (she certainly has an effect on men doesn't she?); Duke Orsino and Viola/Curio. However, the characters seem to have a love-hate relationship with Cupid. Within the first line of the play, it is glorified: "If music be the food of love, play on..." (Duke Orsino, I:I). And while Olivia is annoyed with Orsino's affection, she craves Curio's.
Logan, Thad Jenkins. "Twelfth Night: The Limits of Festivity." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 Spring 1982: 223-238. Print.